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Washout posted:Trip report: could not even get halfway through the first book, forgot how poo poo he was in every way. coldblooded
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Jul 15, 2016 22:59
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Danknificent posted:coldblooded Self insertion porn, long drawn out sex and action scenes, bizzare power fantasy, repeated rape, it's got everything!
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Jul 15, 2016 23:12
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 or maybe 
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Jul 16, 2016 00:27
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Anyone read the Frontlines series by Marko Kloos? I really liked it. Would watch a TV show about that in a heartbeat.
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Jul 24, 2016 13:36
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It's a pretty good series, not that I've read it in a while. Apparently the new book's with the publisher, getting ready for release. I do want to see where he's going with the war, and also more of the gay russian space marine.
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Jul 24, 2016 14:03
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Rocksicles posted:Anyone read the Frontlines series by Marko Kloos? One thing going for a TV adaptation, though, is that the TV version would be hard pressed to deliver flatter characterization than the books managed.
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Jul 24, 2016 15:47
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Rocksicles posted:Anyone read the Frontlines series by Marko Kloos? I enjoy them for Kindle Unlimited books.
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Jul 24, 2016 17:28
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Rocksicles posted:Anyone read the Frontlines series by Marko Kloos? Do the later books go anywhere? The first two read more like collections of short stories with very tenuous connection between them. Especially since you never get the impression that anything is ever resolved, things just get worse and worse and worse and new ways in which things are bad are created one after the other. I honestly got the impression that Kloos just wants to write action scenes (which he writes pretty drat well) but has no idea where to go with the plot and just makes the overall plot up as he goes along.
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Jul 24, 2016 20:17
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I recently read Heirs of Empire by Evan Currie as I rather liked his Into the black/On silver wings series. The story is... not great, but the setting is rather interesting. I don't think it spoils anything, but just in case: No one remembers how they got there, but a human society is on a ringworld which is divided into sections by the massive and uncrossable "Godwalls". By observing the far side of the inner ring, scientists estimate their own world-section is but one of millions, although they have no contact with any other sections. No one understands what the ringworld is or how it works, but they have adapted to things just being weird. If they dig down deep enough they hit unbreakable metal, water just appears in certain places and vanishes if diverted out of it, there are distinct bands of high speed air which airships can use like highways, etc. Technology levels are very skewed, on one hand food seems to be mostly produced by dirt farmers, on the other hand the elite soldiers have items which can form armour out of photons, and regular soldiers carry gamma-radiation guns and they travel on ultra high-speed mag lev trains. While the rather dull main story is going on there are hints about some terrible threat looming over distant provinces, which I took to mean there might be some [probably alien] society in another section which has learned how to cross sections and has turned expansionist.
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Jul 25, 2016 09:17
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ArchangeI posted:Do the later books go anywhere? The first two read more like collections of short stories with very tenuous connection between them. Especially since you never get the impression that anything is ever resolved, things just get worse and worse and worse and new ways in which things are bad are created one after the other. I honestly got the impression that Kloos just wants to write action scenes (which he writes pretty drat well) but has no idea where to go with the plot and just makes the overall plot up as he goes along. Yeah they go to some pretty insane places. Literally and metaphorically. He writes great space marine stories. His attention to detail is pretty great. Which is a good and a bad thing.
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Jul 26, 2016 11:25
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I read the first Frontlines novel and it read like a very YA airport fiction novel. I really struggled to suspend my disbelief (and this was just after reading the Laundry Files), for the sheer amount coincidences and clichés that kept piling up. For a 99p Kindle buy though it wasn't outright offensive or bad though.
ed balls balls man fucked around with this message at 10:03 on Jul 28, 2016 |
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Jul 28, 2016 09:57
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Abut halfway through The Three-Body Problem, and loving it. It reminds me of some of Stephen Baxter's stuff, but with somewhat better characterization.
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Aug 1, 2016 00:18
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The other thread had a TBP slapfight just these last few days!
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Aug 2, 2016 17:02
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Really? Is there a lot of controversy over it? Again, I'm still in the middle of it, but it doesn't seem like something that would really cause people to get angry over.
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Aug 2, 2016 19:06
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I think the controversy is that some people, including me, thought it was really mediocre save for the cultural revolution parts, but we're orientalist shitheels?
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Aug 2, 2016 19:19
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Chairman Capone posted:Really? Is there a lot of controversy over it? Again, I'm still in the middle of it, but it doesn't seem like something that would really cause people to get angry over. Someone came in and dropped a "why you are a cretin because you don't love it unconditionally." post in the thread. I think he put a "Today I saw the West die." in there as well. It was weird. I more or less liked TBP and TDF, but at the same time I felt there were some definite weaknesses that should have kept TBP from being on the short-list for awards, let alone winning any.
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Aug 2, 2016 19:25
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Yeah I liked the setup of TBP but the ending was a remarkably clumsy infodump that left me quite disappointed. It's like if you had some great mysterious sci fi show set up a bunch of cool poo poo over the course of three seasons and then the last season was just the showrunner explaining to you what was really happening all along over Skype or something.
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Aug 2, 2016 21:52
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Kesper North posted:Heh. It's a near-future SF thing. In the future year of 2046, the Second American Civil War has broken out. Ever since the Greater Riots left thousands dead following the impeachment of President not-Trump in 2019, the escalating extremist rhetoric has made violent incidents common. But when a variant Stuxnet strain introduces a microsecond delay on every high-frequency trade on Wall Street, the economy collapses and a popular uprising takes place across the country (concentrated in the red states, of course) that is lead by the demagogues of the Greater movement (they're Great people who are going to Make America Great Again) finally resulted in open warfare between the populace and law enforcement. sorry for the necropost, but I suddenly thought back to this when I passed the most recent Graveyard Sky book in the store. This isn't quite stupid enough to serve as a viable counterweight to Ringo/Kratman/Williamson/etc, I think. You're mocking a belittling your political foes/antagonists, of course, which if fine. This is one of the two pillars of writing a standard Baen Books novel. The other pillar is that you have to totally absorb all of the most negative stereotypes about your own group, and then, without a hint of self-awareness or irony, carry on as if these qualities are either actively good or harmlessly tolerable. Hence Mike Harmon being a rapacious misogynist, the O'Neal family being creepy hillbillies suitable for a horror movie, Tom Sunday/Herzer Herrick being an alt-right weirdo fuckerman wish-fulfillment character, the mercenaries in Williamson books all being casual psychopaths, and so on. So if reverse-Ringo is your goal, you've gotta have your protagonists really lean in to some liberal/leftist stereotypes, not just react to the cartoonish idiocy of their rivals. PupsOfWar fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Aug 12, 2016 |
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Aug 12, 2016 22:57
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Putin is still running Russia at 93 years old? Who knew vodka was the fountain of youth?
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Aug 16, 2016 03:52
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Everybody knows
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Aug 16, 2016 03:54
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Darkrenown posted:I recently read Heirs of Empire by Evan Currie as I rather liked his Into the black/On silver wings series. The story is... not great, but the setting is rather interesting. I don't think it spoils anything, but just in case: If you liked the setting and wanted a better story try this novella https://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/spring_2007/fiction_missile_gap_by_charles_stross 'Missile Gap' by Charles Stross.
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Aug 20, 2016 10:15
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General Battuta posted:You should read Startide Rising which is a book I adore. Humans are the only naturally evolved species in an eons-old galactic civilization of patrons and clients — the patrons uplift client species to intelligence in exchange for thousands of years of indentured servitude, and the clients become patrons themselves. Struggling to hold on to their independence, the humans send out a scoutship crewed by uplifted dolphins, chimps, and a couple people — and stumble on a fleet of moon-sized starships so mysterious that every major patron species starts hunting their ship across the galaxy. pseudorandom name posted:Also stop after #3. Thanks for these posts. I just finished Startide Rising (which I loved) and The Uplift War (which I liked). I'm kinda curious why the other books are bad. I don't think I'll end up reading them so does anyone want to spoil what makes them so terrible?
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Sep 3, 2016 19:03
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Xtanstic posted:Thanks for these posts. I just finished Startide Rising (which I loved) and The Uplift War (which I liked). I'm kinda curious why the other books are bad. I don't think I'll end up reading them so does anyone want to spoil what makes them so terrible? They aren't terrible, it is just an enormous change of pace, with bucolic stone age stuff. At some point it returns to epic space opera.
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Sep 4, 2016 21:37
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coyo7e posted:
This is from a couple of pages back, but I just had to mention how incredibly, nauseatingly bad these books are. You know that bit in a story where the new guy surprises the old hands and proves his worth? It's just that, for a whole story, and it is extraordinarily grating. And it doesn't even have any lasers.
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Sep 5, 2016 10:01
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Tree Bucket posted:This is from a couple of pages back, but I just had to mention how incredibly, nauseatingly bad these books are. You know that bit in a story where the new guy surprises the old hands and proves his worth? It's just that, for a whole story, and it is extraordinarily grating. Amazon summary posted:When his mother dies in a flitter crash, eighteen-year-old Ishmael Horatio Wang... Ugh. Also, Deptfordx posted:If you liked the setting and wanted a better story try this novella Thanks for the link. I planned on reading just the first bit to decide if I wanted to finish it later and ended up devouring the whole thing.
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Sep 5, 2016 19:59
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the Quarter Share Half Share etc series used to be available on itunes as serial podcasts for free, so if anybody actually wants to check them out you can probably find them that way. But if you go through that much effort, do yourself a favor and also look up Jack Wakes Up by Seth Harwood, which is probably hanging around for free on itunes podcast archives as well, and it's legit good.. Almost as good as Seth Harwood's A Long Way From Disney. You'll thank me.
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Sep 6, 2016 02:31
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Tree Bucket posted:This is from a couple of pages back, but I just had to mention how incredibly, nauseatingly bad these books are. You know that bit in a story where the new guy surprises the old hands and proves his worth? It's just that, for a whole story, and it is extraordinarily grating. haha, I remember when I read those...or at least one or two of them. Miss-Bomarc posted:So I'm reading those Star Trader novels (Quarter Share, Half Share, so on) and it occurs to me that this is what anime people call "Slice Of Life". Like, in the first book the most exciting thing that happens is that the main character realizes that the belts he bought really cheap on one planet can be sold for a lot of money on the next one...but that if he buys belt buckles to go with them he can make even more money!
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Sep 8, 2016 06:31
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I listened to it literally a decade or twelve years back on itunes but I'd bet a quarter you can still find it on there if you figure out the right keywords but at that point I would also recommend you listen to a Fitz book by Robin Hobb instead so  stick with Seth Harwood for freebie itunes gleaning or just throw the man a bone since he's been giving it away for free for like a decade https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2877861-jack-wakes-up?from_search=truehttp://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5981242-a-long-way-from-disney coyo7e fucked around with this message at 08:30 on Sep 8, 2016 |
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Sep 8, 2016 08:27
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Yeah, stopping was the right decision. I had a friend who insisted on playing them as the background to our Civ5 sessions. We finally deleted all the files after the scene in book 3 where an officer goes on a rape spree in deep space and as soon as the ship reaches port our hero boldly... cleans the ship's kitchen and buys fresh oregano & paprika to boost morale. Urghh. ON A MORE CHEERFUL NOTE: if you ever have a 3-day-longt bout of nausea, fever, vomiting and insomnia, and decide to get through it by reading the nearest book, make sure that said book is not Revelation Space. Things were getting a bit too real by the end. What other books should not be read well sick...?
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Sep 8, 2016 22:23
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Tree Bucket posted:ON A MORE CHEERFUL NOTE: if you ever have a 3-day-longt bout of nausea, fever, vomiting and insomnia, and decide to get through it by reading the nearest book, make sure that said book is not Revelation Space. Things were getting a bit too real by the end. What other books should not be read well sick...? Blindsight, Neuropath (don't ever read Neuropath anyway)
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Sep 8, 2016 22:50
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Tree Bucket posted:Yeah, stopping was the right decision. I had a friend who insisted on playing them as the background to our Civ5 sessions. We finally deleted all the files after the scene in book 3 where an officer goes on a rape spree in deep space and as soon as the ship reaches port our hero boldly... cleans the ship's kitchen and buys fresh oregano & paprika to boost morale. Urghh. My mom picked up the first SF novel she found at the bookstore for me when I came down with chickenpox, finally, at the age of 15. It was The Ship Who Searched by Anne McCaffrey, and the very first scene in the book was the main character coming down with some horrible space plague that left her with lock-in syndrome for life 
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Sep 8, 2016 23:39
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Tree Bucket posted:Yeah, stopping was the right decision. I had a friend who insisted on playing them as the background to our Civ5 sessions. We finally deleted all the files after the scene in book 3 where an officer goes on a rape spree in deep space and as soon as the ship reaches port our hero boldly... cleans the ship's kitchen and buys fresh oregano & paprika to boost morale. Urghh. The Stand
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Sep 9, 2016 01:37
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That Works posted:The Stand Triggered, I remember reading it while home sick and it was the WORST. Yes the best thing for me while being home alone and miserable is to read a book about someone who is alone and miserable and then even more terrible poo poo happens.
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Sep 9, 2016 01:42
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Washout posted:Triggered, I remember reading it while home sick and it was the WORST. I was fine on the 1st read but got a cough or something like 2 weeks later and was still kinda like "oh poo poo"
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Sep 9, 2016 01:43
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So I noticed they had the Honor Harrington books in book on CD at the local library and on a whim I've been listening to On Basilisk Station. Listening to a voice actress actually do Honor's voice as a soprano instead of just having it described that way is quite a change. That said, I do now notice how often Weber describes her "icy soprano" while rarely if ever giving anyone else's voice a specific pitch. The biggest thing that catches my eye (or ears, as the case may be) is how much more interesting the space combat was in the early books. You've got a variety of weapons, maneuvering mattered to take advantage of the sidewalls, which meant that tactics mattered quite a bit. As opposed to the more recent books where combat's been reduced to missiles, missiles, missiles, and more goddamn missiles. There used to be more to it than "have better missiles".  The other thing about it was noticing the sudden savage burst of antique gun porn. You can see that the insane amount of antique gun love that Weber pours into whole chapters of the Safehold books has been in Weber's blood from the very beginning. He lovingly describes the workings of the flintlocks the native Medusans are using down to the type of unproduced Earth weapon they most resemble. Meanwhile the sidearm of the protagonists are just "pulse rifles" and "stunners". 
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Sep 22, 2016 07:22
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jng2058 posted:The other thing about it was noticing the sudden savage burst of antique gun porn. You can see that the insane amount of antique gun love that Weber pours into whole chapters of the Safehold books has been in Weber's blood from the very beginning. He lovingly describes the workings of the flintlocks the native Medusans are using down to the type of unproduced Earth weapon they most resemble. Meanwhile the sidearm of the protagonists are just "pulse rifles" and "stunners". I'd love to see a MilSF writer extol the virtues of a Tried and True Old Fashioned Gunpowder Firearm that just so happens to be a Glock 17 or something else mundane that old white gun enthusiasts don't currently cream their pants over.
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Sep 22, 2016 17:08
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What I find laughable is the idea that in a future with FTL travel, guns will be things that you carry and have to think about firing, rather than one of several layers of autonomous defense system.
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Sep 22, 2016 18:45
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I guess no one ever had to argue ROE with a 1911.
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Sep 22, 2016 18:46
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Mars4523 posted:Which bugs the gently caress out of me, because if a society set X thousand years into the future were to mythologize any Old Earth firearm why would they do so with a gun from modern day's distant past? Why wouldn't they? The time frame, IIRC, is something like the year 4000+? On that level, a Glock17 is just as much in the distant past as a 1911. This is like asking why they gave a big sloppy blowjob to a weapon from 10AD instead of one from 110AD. Also, they probably do it because gun nuts in modern days mythologize the 1911 and they're going to do so for the foreseeable future. I mean, mythologizing the first semi-automatic handgun makes a lot more sense than mythologizing a random one from 100 years later. Khizan fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Sep 22, 2016 |
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Sep 22, 2016 19:42
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Mars4523 posted:I'd love to see a MilSF writer extol the virtues of a Tried and True Old Fashioned Gunpowder Firearm that just so happens to be a Glock 17 or something else mundane that old white gun enthusiasts don't currently cream their pants over. Unbreakable, the first book in The Chronicles of Promise Paen, literally does this with the protagonist's family heirloom glock. It also weirdly lifts some terms from the Honor Harrington books as well; at least, I haven't seen the term hexapuma anywhere else, or neobarb either even though the etymology on that one is pretty simple.
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Sep 22, 2016 19:48
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